Hu Jintao

China's Communist Party leadership pledged during a meeting Friday to "actively" tackle climate change and stick to its current fiscal and monetary policies, state media reported. "The country will step up construction of major projects related to energy conservation and environmental protection in 2010," Xinhua news agency quoted the meeting of the Politburo, chaired by President Hu Jintao, as proclaiming. "Attendees... agreed that the country should maintain the continuity and stability of the macroeconomic policies," it added. The meeting, called to review economic policies for the year ahead, came the day after China unveiled for the first time specific targets for curbing growth in ... Read Full Story

US President Barack Obama should "pick up the phone" and urge Chinese President Hu Jintao personally to ease pressure on a Beijing-based human rights lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, US lawmakers said Monday. Jiang, who sought in vain to meet with Obama during the US president's recent visit to China, was detained and interrogated by Chinese officials and is now at home under heavy police surveillance, they said. "The president should pick up the phone and call Hu Jintao and say 'do not hurt this man, or any others like him,'" said Republican Representative Chris Smith, a long-time critic of Beijing's rights record. And US Ambassador ... Read Full Story

Although US President Barack Obama raised the thorny issue of human rights during his first visit to China this week, he left many political dissidents -- those who were not locked up -- disappointed. Obama spoke about his belief in "universal rights" during a town hall meeting with Chinese youth in Shanghai on Monday and again Tuesday at a press conference with President Hu Jintao, but dissidents said it was not enough. "At first, I had a lot of hope for human rights, for Tibet and for Xinjiang," said female Tibetan writer Woeser, who goes by only one name and is a vocal critic ... Read Full Story

BEIJING (Reuters) - At least 31 miners were killed and 78 remain trapped 500 meters (yards) underground following a gas blast at a mine in China, state media said on Saturday. The blast ripped through the mine around 2.30 on Saturday morning, when there were 528 people at work, but 419 got out safely, the official Xinhua news agency said. The Xinxing mine is in Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia. It is owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, and produces 12 million tons of coal a year, Xinhua said. Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang is heading to the site of the accident, and ... Read Full Story

US President Barack Obama wrapped up his first trip to China on Wednesday by meeting Premier Wen Jiabao, who said the two nations were better off as partners not rivals, and visiting the Great Wall. The US president left Beijing for South Korea, where he was due to meet President Lee Myung-Bak on Thursday for talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and a stalled bilateral free trade pact. Obama and Wen hailed their countries' willingness to build a new, in-depth partnership as they sat down for discussions and a working lunch in Beijing, echoing comments made Tuesday by the US leader and Chinese ... Read Full Story